


Weep You No More

by Raphiday



Series: Sense and Sensibility AU [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura and Lance are siblings here, Coran has five puppies who are all loves, I will admit this AU is VERY LOOSELY based on the actual novel, Keith and Pidge are mentioned but not seen in this story, Multi, Sense and Sensibility AU, and that fabulous 1995 adaptation starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, but only two of them are mentioned here, mild Keith/Allura, mild hunk/pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 15:37:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12061953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raphiday/pseuds/Raphiday
Summary: Sense and Sensibility AU: After the loss of both their beloved father and their childhood home Altea Park, Allura and Lance Alforchild find themselves adjusting, more or less, to life in Leonidus, a cottage owned by Coran Wimbledon-Symthe, their father's closest friend.  While Allura tries to hide her secret romance from prying ears (and finds herself not alone in the endeavor), Lance finds himself trying his darnedest not to fall for an entirely unexpected suitor.





	Weep You No More

Settling into Leonidus had proven far easier than anticipated for Allura and Lance Alforchild, not the least because of the delightful company they had found in Coran Wimbleton-Smythe, their father’s closest friend and the keeper of the house, and Henare “Hunk” Garrett, the jovial chef and servant who lived with them.  Lance in particular had found Hunk’s company quite the comfort in his time of grief, and had created in the span of a single week a close enough friendship to be allowed to tease the chef with regards to letters Hunk had been writing to a certain “Pidge”.

“How’s your lovely pigeon doing today?” Lance said, sitting next to Hunk at the luncheon table (Coran, Lance and Allura had insisted that Hunk sit down to eat with them).

Hunk raised an eyebrow, his face betraying the slightest blush, and said, “She’s doing well, Lance, though I think she’d rather be out of her cage, which seems to be getting smaller for her by the day–”

Slav Gunderson, a very close,  _ very eccentric _ friend of Coran’s that he simply had to introduce to his honorary niece and nephew, chimed in with a “Oh, you simply must tell me about your bird, though I do hope you’re taking full responsibility for her as well as pleasure with her!”

With that, Hunk’s face turned redder than the pomegranates Slav had managed to find and bring to Leonidus’s dining room table, and Lance simply stared at this strange man, shocked and perhaps slightly jealous that there existed a man more  _ effortlessly _ opposed to propriety than himself.

“Oh, from what I hear, our chef’s not the  _ only _ one with a secret paramour!” Coran said, prompting both Lance and Hunk to groan, and then continued, having not seen the sheer look of panic in Allura’s eyes, “Allura here has had  _ quite _ the list of suitors trying to get her attention already, and she’s ignored all of them!  She must have left her heart in Altea Park, perhaps we can get the name of the lucky suitor?”

Allura glared at Lance to keep him quiet, but when Coran and Slav persisted, she conceded, “I shall allow you each a guess as to the first letter of his surname.  Lance is not allowed to help any of you, as he already knows the name of my  _ alleged _ paramour.”

“Alleged my a–” Lance said before having his mouth promptly covered by a now-flustered Allura.

“Who would like to make the first guess?” Allura asked, a fake smile plastered on her face.

“X?”  

Lance once again stared at Slav and wondered what must be going on in his bizarre little mind.  He then sighed and said, “Slav, do you know anyone whose last name starts with X?”

“No, of course not, well, not in this universe, but in a universe merely two universes away from this one Miss Alforchild is  _ madly _ in love with someone who has a surname starting with X, so I thought I’d take my chances!” Slav proclaimed loudly, but as Coran and Hunk huddled together to discuss other possible letters, Allura and Lance swore they could hear Slav mutter, “Miss Alforchild obviously doesn’t  _ want _ us to know of this suitor so why not throw my shot?”  With that, the Alforchilds thought to themselves that perhaps this Slav figure wouldn’t be such unpleasant company after all.

Coran sighed next and said, “This might be a long shot, but I know of a  _ splendid _ man who lives around here with a last name starting with S?”

“No,” Allura said, her face relaxing into near-relief.  “How about you, Hunk?”

With a smile on his face, Hunk guessed, “K!”

The bright red that graced Allura’s cheeks revealed the rightness of his guess, but before Coran and Slav could go any further as to guessing the identity of Allura’s love interest, Lance blurted out, “Want me to play for you?!”

After an exceedingly awkward silence, Slav answered, “Mr. Alforchild, I have heard from your father, before he passed of course, that is quite the tragedy, that you have  _ quite _ the skill with the pianoforte, so yes, you simply must perform for us!  Something cheerful to commemorate your arrival at this good house!”

Lance gulped; he hadn’t anticipated a yes in reply.  “You mean you, Allura, Hunk, Coran and the beagles?”

Coran then proceeded to zealously second the idea, saying, “Absolutely, my boy, my beagles absolutely adore good music!”

“I don’t know about that,” Lance said, grimacing at the realization that he hadn’t cared to play anything but mournful tunes since his father’s passing.

“Oh Lance,” Allura said, now genuinely relieved, “It would be a great comfort to hear you play, Father always loved it.”

“You know I can never say no to you, Allura,” Lance muttered as he walked toward the pianoforte and rifled through the stack of music placed to its right.  He then saw the hasty transposition he had written not so long before his father’s death and the words written on top, “Weep You No More Sad Fountains,” and knew he had found his piece.

“I think I’ll play one of my favorites.  I heard Allura sing it a while back and transposed it to a key I could manage,” Lance said, whipping out the sheet music and placing it in front of him.  After making sure everyone was seated and quiet, he began to play.   _“Weep you no more, sad fountains, what need you flow so fast?”_

Lance continued, and Coran had to gently stop Slav from clapping between phrases.  The beagles were for once silent, and Allura stealthily took out the handkerchief Keith had given her and made to wipe the tears flowing down her face with all the decorum she could muster.  Hunk had no such discretion and openly enjoyed the performance, prompting a smile to grace Lance’s face as he played on.

As Lance sang, _“Softly, softly, now softly, softly lies sleeping,”_ an absolutely _gorgeous_ man with a delicately-crafted steel and brass arm at his right side and a scar across his face could be seen walking through the door.   _ Wow, Coran sure was right about Allura already having the suitors lining up to see her, _ he thought pleasantly, and he figured he might as well give his potential future brother-in-law a good show.

Lance played an improvised interlude, giving the new visitor just enough time to reach the threshold of the parlour, and then continued, _“Sleep is a reconciling, a rest that peace begets..."_

* * *

As Shiro approached Leonidus, he noticed that Ebony, who normally without fail set out to greet him by at latest ten paces away from the house, wasn’t even there by the time he reached the threshold.  Before he could fret as to Ebony’s condition, however, he heard the twinkling of the pianoforte, far better than he had heard from Leonidus’s walls in years, and an animated tenor rang out in song to join it.  Shiro found himself stopped just beyond the threshold and suddenly very aware of the clinking noise his boots must have made.

He held his breath, and, quietly as he could, crept toward the beautiful sound.  He could hear the first verse ending and met the performer’s eyes (that he had never seen such a gorgeous shade of blue was the surprising first thought that came to mind); the performer sat up slightly more straightly than he had been, and he played an interlude, beckoning Shiro with a nod to come closer.  It was almost as though the man performed the interlude purely to give him time to do so, and Shiro smiled, gladdened by the mere idea of it.  

The man resumed his song as Shiro leaned into the doorway of the parlour, and Shiro had to keep himself from shivering; he sounded  _ so much better _ up close.  

_“Doth not the sun rise smiling, when fair at even he sets?"_  The thought of a duet with this man crossed his mind, and Shiro’s face reddened at the prospect of it.  Thank goodness all attention was on the man playing the pianoforte and not him, for Shiro doubted he could tolerate Slav asking him oddly-perceptive questions about illnesses that made the face turn red. 

_"Rest you then, rest sad eyes,"_ the man sang, and Shiro felt as though he were singing solely to him.  His soul outright panted at the thrill of it, but his face revealed nothing of the sort; he would not allow for it.  Perhaps he would allow himself to admit the man beautiful, yes, _ that _ he could think silently to himself without curious eyes looking his way.

_"Melt not in weeping, while she lies sleeping."_  For a moment, Shiro saw a small glimmer of tears in the beautiful man’s eyes, and he reconsidered the performance’s possible audience; perhaps the man was singing to himself.  The glimmer disappeared not a second later, and Shiro sunk even more deeply into the song. 

_"Softly, softly,"_ the beautiful man sang, and softly the tears began to flow down Shiro’s face instead.  He wiped them away with his right hand, hoping that both audience and performer were as entranced by the song being played as he found himself becoming and did not notice his tears. 

_"Now softly..."_ The beautiful man took a small gasping breath at the end of the phrase, and at that moment Shiro found that his heart was utterly lost, stolen entirely by this enchanting creature with an angel’s voice. 

_"Softly lies sleeping."_  There was naught but peace on the beautiful man’s face as he played the final few notes of the song, and Shiro thought to himself that perhaps the spell would be lifted at song’s end. 

It wasn’t.

* * *

 

Lance stood up to take his bows and wipe the errant tears that fell from his face as he played.

“Bravo!  Bravo!  Trust me when I say that in at least twenty universes, you are a celebrated pianist, and if you keep putting out performances like  _ that _  you  _ could _ make it twenty-one!” Slav said, eagerly rushing to the pianoforte and vigorously shaking his hand.

“Now, now then, Slav, we needn’t pester the poor man,” Coran scolded, his tone firm but a gentle hand on the small of Slav’s back that did not escape either Allura’s nor Lance’s notice belying any genuine strictness he may have had otherwise.

“You were amazing!  I’ve never seen the beagles this quiet the entire time I’ve lived here!” Hunk said, prompting a laugh to escape Lance’s lips.

Perhaps the most affecting reaction to his performance, however, was a quiet hug, a head on Lance’s shoulder, and a wavering “Thank you” whispered by Allura into Lance’s ear.

The moment did not last long, however, for Coran strolled right up to the gorgeous man that had so eagerly watched his performance (Lance figured that the man was obviously here to meet Allura, but he could dream) and said, “Colonel, it’s always a delight to see you, and I am utterly ecstatic that you came here right on time to hear our newest resident perform for us!”

“He performed quite admirably,” Shiro said, hoping his voice wouldn’t betray just how much of what he said was understatement.

Coran then turned to Lance and said, “Ah, Lance, might I be given the pleasure of introducing you to Colonel Takashi Shirogane?”

Lance turned to Shiro and said, hoping against all hope that he wasn’t  _ too _ obviously ogling the man, “It’s a honor to meet you, Colonel.”

“Call me Shiro,” he said, taking Lance’s hand into his own and just barely resisting the temptation to kiss it.  “And what may I call you?”

“Oh sorry, Shiro!” Lance said, his face flushed and his eyes betraying confusion, especially since Azula was happily barking, wagging her tail and running around the pair; he then composed himself (or at least he tried to do so), grinned and answered, “The name’s Lance Alforchild.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to know the full(ish) cast of this AU, here's a link to it below!
> 
> http://raphidae.tumblr.com/post/157928462247/sense-and-sensibility-au-cast


End file.
